Sanctiloquence and Reverie
October 31st, 1975
Slytherin Common Room, Hogwarts School, Scotland
Late after dinner that evening, Barty had brought Pandora and Dorcas into their dorm. Evan was in the bathroom, likely doing his makeup for the Halloween party a few older Slytherins were hosting. Regulus never understood makeup, it was just a glorified mask.
Pandora sat him down and distracted him from Dorcas pulling out her makeup kit and spilling it over the bed. He noticed, of course, but didn't think it worth mentioning. Until Pandora pulled out clothes for him. A white shirt, neat and smoothed out, black silk trousers of the same state, black boots (the ones Sirius always wore which must have given him blisters, Regulus truly didn't understand the need for that), rings and other jewelry galore as well as a crown of black flowers.
They had to promise him every slice of bread in the morning just to get him to agree to wear the clothes and let them do his makeup.
An hour later, when he walked into the bathroom and stared in the mirror, he didn't hate what he saw. In fact, he felt like some sort of fallen angel from the stories he was told as a child. He was beautiful. He hadn't even known it. At least he was aware of it now.
What he wasn't aware of was that his brother, James Potter and Sybil Trelawney would be all separately coming to the party. Potter and Trelawney's mere presences made him nervous.
She caught him reading in the corner a few minutes into the party and pulled his book away from him. She got slightly flustered at seeing his appearance and smiled.
'You look..nice, Black.'
"I accept the compliment, Trelawney."
She managed to drag him to the roof through a hatch she said she'd found in first year. There, she put her hand suspiciously close to his. It took him embarrassingly long to realize she was trying to flirt. He only realized after she kissed his cheek and ran off.
At least it was a girl. At least it wasn't a boy. At least it wasn't James Potter. But... Regulus' thoughts began to trail off. He shut them down with a sigh and climbed back down to his dorm.